u/GuillaumeTheFirst

Hi all,

My husband and I recently bought a home in the Kraainem/Wezembeek-Oppem/Tervuren area. I’ve always wanted to live here since I grew up here, and it’s close to Brussels where we used to live and still have friends, activities, and work. My husband was open to it, though he wouldn’t have minded being a bit further out.

As you know, prices here are high, so we planned to buy a fixer-upper and renovate gradually over a few years. After a long search, we found what we thought was our dream home at the end of 2025.

We’ve now been living here for 2–3 months, and the house is about 30% renovated. We fully redid the upstairs (including piping), updated electricity, painted everything, refreshed the parquet, and we’re installing triple-glazed windows in September — around €80–90k so far. There’s still a lot left (downstairs plumbing, flooring, kitchen, bathroom, roof), likely another €150k+, which we don’t have right now.

One thing we completely overlooked was flight paths. I grew up here and my parents still live here, so I thought I knew the noise — but I really didn’t. Planes pass constantly, every few minutes (sometimes it feels like every few seconds, especially mornings and evenings). Either routes changed, or I somehow never noticed before.

It’s been much harder than expected. We’re both really affected by it, which is why we prioritized the windows. Some days I feel like I’m getting used to it, but other days, especially when I’m tired, it feels overwhelming. My heart literally races when planes pass, and it feels like there’s no real break. I honestly feel like I’m going a bit crazy sometimes.

In my worst moments, I think about selling… but that also feels unrealistic. Would we even recover what we’ve already invested? And would selling so quickly be seen negatively? What would you do in this situation?

Also, I know we made this decision ourselves and I’m already quite hard on myself about it, so I’d really appreciate keeping comments constructive and kind.

Thank you 🙏